



-v-^5^3^ 



#%£ts una ipktx 




INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; 



INCLUDING 



A SOCIETY OF ARTS, A MUSEUM OF ARTS, AND A 
SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE. 



PROPOSED TO BE ESTABLISHED IN BOSTON. 



^prepareb bu |3 taction of tbe Commtitte of ^ssoeiateb institutions of Science snb girts ; 

AND ADDRESSED TO 

MANUFACTURERS, MERCHANTS, MECHANICS, AGRICULTURISTS, AND 

OTHER FRIENDS OF ENLIGHTENED INDUSTRY 

IN THE COMMONWEALTH. 




BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON 

22, School Street. 

1860. 







/ 






#%ris antr jpian 



INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; 



INCLUDING 



A SOCIETY OF ARTS, A MUSEUM OF ARTS, AND A 
SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE. 



PROPOSED TO BE ESTABLISHED IN BOSTON. 



||yeuareb bo gireetion of ibe Committee of gissociateb Institutions of Science anb girts ; 

AND ADDRESSED TO 

MANUFACTURERS, MERCHANTS, MECHANICS, AGRICULTURISTS, AND 

OTHER FRIENDS OF ENLIGHTENED INDUSTRY 

IN THE COMMONWEALTH. 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 

22, School Street. 

1860. 



INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 



In submitting to our fellow- citizens the following outline of 
an Institute of Technology, to be established, if practicable, 
on the Back-Bay lands in Boston, the undersigned are desirous 
of enlisting the sympathy, and securing the aid and counsel, 
of the friends of Industrial Art and of General Education 
throughout the Commonwealth. 

We believe that the great practical value of the results at 
which we aim, although freely admitted by the friends of 
genuine progress everywhere, must be recognized with espe- 
cial heartiness in a community Like our own, where material 
prosperity and intellectual advancement are felt to be inse- 
parably associated ; and we feel assured that the magnitude 
of the plans by which it is proposed to secure these great 
public benefits, instead of forming an obstacle to their attain- 
ment, will but invite our fellow- citizens to a liberality pro- 
portioned to the interests to be subserved. 

In the recent progress of the Industrial Arts, — including 
commerce and agriculture, as well as the manufacturing, and, 
more strictly, mechanical pursuits, — we meet with daily- 
increasing proofs of the happy influence of scientific cul- 
ture on the industry and the civilization of nations. The 
Arts, no longer confining themselves to a mere empirical 
routine, seek to refer their processes to scientific laws, and, in 



many departments, justly claim the dignity of applied science. 
The practical nature of the discoveries in chemistry, mecha- 
nics, geology, and other branches of scientific inquiry, has 
multiplied almost infinitely the lines of connection between 
them and the processes of the Workshop, the Manufactory, 
and the Farm, and of the Constructive and Locomotive Arts ; 
and these countless connecting threads, woven into one indis- 
soluble texture, form that ever-enlarging web which is the 
blended product of the world's scientific and industrial ac- 
tivity. 

In view of this recognized connection between industrial 
progress and an enlarged acquaintance with the objects and 
phenomena of nature and with physical laws, we find that 
the most enlightened communities of Europe have endea- 
vored to provide for the practical co-operation of Education 
and the Arts, by the establishment of Museums, Societies, 
and Colleges of Technology. Of the great benefits which 
these organizations have conferred, and continue to bestow, 
upon the various practical Arts and upon popular education, 
we are assured by the records of their progress, and yet more 
by the lively desire so generally manifest to augment their 
number and extend their means of usefulness. The history 
of the Conservatoire des Arts and the Ecole Centrale of 
Paris, and of the Kensington Museum, the School of Mines, 
the Museums of Economic Geology and Botany, and other 
like but less conspicuous institutions on the Continent and 
in Great Britain, has been such, both as regards the progress 
of the Arts and the diffusion of practical knowledge, as may 
well incite the friends of enlightened industry in this country 
to systematic efforts in the same direction. 

In New England, and especially in our own Commonwealth, 
the time has arrived when, as we believe, the interests of Com- 
merce and the Arts, as well as of General Education, call for 
the most earnest co-operation of intelligent culture with in- 
dustrial pursuits. Our success hitherto in the competitions 
of trade, manufactures, and the other productive Arts, has 



been the admitted result of the superior intelligence which 
lias inspired our enterprise and guided our activity ; but, to 
secure a steady prosperity in the midst of the busy inventions 
and rapidly expanding knowledge which mark these pursuits 
in the leading European nations, we feel that it has become 
indispensable for us to provide, at least as effectually as they 
have done, such facilities for practical knowledge, and for the 
intelligent guidance of enterprise and labor, as may make 
our progress commensurate, step by step, with the advances 
of scientific and practical discovery. 

While the vast and increasing magnitude of the industrial 
interests of New England furnishes a powerful incentive to 
the establishment within its borders of an Institution devoted 
to technological uses, it cannot be doubted that the concen- 
tration of these interests in so great a degree, in and around 
Boston, renders the capital of the State an eligible site for 
such an undertaking. Indeed, considering the peculiar genius 
of our busy population for the Practical Arts, and marking 
their avidity in the study of scientific facts and principles 
tending to explain or advance them, we see a special and 
most striking fitness in the establishment of such an Institu- 
tion among them, and we gather a confident assurance of its 
pre-eminent utility and success. Nor can we advert to the 
intelligence which is so well known as guiding the large muni- 
ficence of our community, without taking encouragement in 
the inception of the enterprise, and feeling the assurance, that 
whatever is adapted to advance the industrial and educational 
interests of the Commonwealth will receive from them the 
heartiest sympathy and support. 

With the view of securing the great industrial and educa- 
tional benefits above alluded to, it is proposed to establish, on 
a comprehensive plan, an Institution devoted to the Practical 
Arts and Sciences, to be called the Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology, having the triple organization of 
a Society of Arts, a Museum or Conservatory of Arts, and a 
School of Industrial Science and Art. 



I. SOCIETY OP ARTS OP THE INSTITUTE. 

Under the first of these characters, — that of a Society of 
Arts, — the Institute of Technology would form itself into 
a department of investigation and publication, intended to 
promote research in connection with industrial science, by 
the exhibition, at the meetings of the Society, of new mecha- 
nical inventions, products, and processes ; by written and oral 
communications and discussions, as well as by more elabo- 
rate treatises on special subjects of inquiry ; and by the pre- 
paration and publication, statedly, of Reports exhibiting the 
condition of the various departments of industry, the progress 
of practical discovery in each, and the bearings of the scien- 
tific and other questions which are found to be associated with 
their advancement. 

In this connection, we would hope to secure, as an impor- 
tant feature of our plan, the establishment of a Journal of 
Industrial Science and Art, which, besides setting forth the 
proceedings of the Society, and the condition and progress of 
the Museum and School of Industrial Science, should furnish 
a faithful record of the advance of the Arts and Practical 
Sciences at home and abroad. 

A journal devoted to these objects, judiciously and ably con- 
ducted, would, we are confident, prove an invaluable help in 
carrying forward the plans and promoting the success of the 
Institute ; and would, at the same time, form one of the most 
powerful means for advancing the interests of the Indus- 
trial Arts and Practical Education throughout our country. 
Hitherto, in the United States, we have had no periodical 
occupying so large a field of the Applied Sciences as is here 
contemplated ; and we cannot doubt that such a publication 
would be warmly welcomed by those who are professionally 
or otherwise interested in these pursuits. 

It does not seem necessary at present to enter into the 
details of organization which may be deemed expedient in 



the operations of the Institute, in its character of a Society of 
Arts. These would be framed for the most part, especially as 
regards its government and its business relations, with a re- 
ference to the arrangements which similar societies elsewhere 
have found to be the simplest and most effective. Its general 
regulation would, as usual, devolve on a President, two or 
more Vice-Presidents, a Council, Secretary, and other neces- 
sary executive and financial officers, to be appointed in such 
form, and for such times, as might hereafter be deemed 
advisable. The effective operations of the Institute would, 
however, we think, mainly depend upon the Committees, Cu- 
rators, and Professors appointed to the charge of its various 
departments. 

As of leading importance among these Committees, we 
would suggest the following, which, from the permanent nature 
of their duties, should be Standing Committees : — 

First, Committees of Arts. 

Second, Committee on the Museum. 

Third, Committee on the School of Industrial Science. 

Fourth, Committee on Publications. 

The Committees of Arts, designed to form in a large 
measure the working power of the Institute, should be ar- 
ranged, when convenient, in conformity with the leading 
departments of the Museum, when this shall have been esta- 
blished ; aiding the Curators with their counsels, and attend- 
ing to the general interests of their several divisions. 

It would be the duty of these Committees, by correspond- 
ence or otherwise, to aim at increasing the treasures of the 
Museum, and to unite with the Curators in stated Reports on 
the condition and progress of the respective departments. 
They should, moreover, be charged with the consideration of 
all questions and interests relating to the several branches 
which may be brought to the notice of the Institute, and be 
empowered or required to report their conclusions and sug- 



8 



gestions to the general meeting. It should also be their pro- 
vince to propose subjects for investigation in their respective 
departments, to recommend experiments and trials of pro- 
cesses and machinery, and to designate such inventions or 
improvements as may be deemed worthy of special commen- 
dation or honorary reward. 

From the great diversity of subjects comprised in the plan 
of the Institute, it would be necessary to group them under 
general heads ; appointing a Committee only to each group, 
and looking to a division of these duties as the operations of 
the Institute and the progress of the Museum should demand. 
In this view, the following Committees of Arts may be desig- 
nated as a suitable arrangement in the commencement of the 
undertaking : — 

Standing Committees of Arts. 

1. On Mineral Materials. 

This Committee would have charge of whatever relates to 
the various rocks, sands, clays, marbles, and other mineral 
substances used in building and sculpture ; the ores of iron, 
copper, lead, and other important metals ; the metals them- 
selves, in their crude or un wrought condition ; the different 
kinds of coal ; and, in fact, all the mineral substances em- 
ployed in the useful arts, as well as what pertains to mining, 
quarrying, and the smelting of ores. 

2. On Organic Materials. 

This would embrace whatever is practically interesting in 
relation to the vegetable and animal substances used in the ma- 
nufacturing and other arts, — as cotton, flax, hemp, wool, silk, 
hair, skins, furs, feathers, woods, barks, gums, dye-stuffs, oils, 
waxes, ivory, bone, shell, &c. ; having in view their vegeta- 
ble or animal sources, their culture and collection, their com- 
mercial importance, and their respective qualities in each 
variety as connected with the manufactured products. 



3. On Tools and Instruments. 

To this Committee would be intrusted the subjects of cut- 
lery, and mechanics' tools of every variety, agricultural and 
horticultural implements, utensils of copper, tin, zinc, &c. ; 
guns and weapons generally ; surgical instruments ; mathema- 
tical, chemical, and philosophical implements and apparatus, 
and instruments of music and horology ; keeping in view the 
processes of manufacture, and special applications and uses of 
each. 

4. On Machinery and Motive Powers. 

The province of this Committee would embrace the con- 
struction and application of machinery in general, as applied 
to textile manufactures ; to grinding, rolling, hammering, 
planing, pressing, sewing, and other mechanical efforts ; to 
agricultural operations and to locomotion; together with all 
questions relating to the application of motive powers, and to 
the measurement of their efficiency. 



5. On Textile Manufactures. 

On this Committee would devolve all questions relating to 
the qualities, modes of production, and commercial value, of 
the various textile fabrics of cotton, wool, flax, hemp, silk, 
fur, hair, straw, &c, whether simple or mixed, woven, felted, 
or wrought by hand, as well as to the processes of dyeing, 
printing, and other ornamentation applied to them. 

6. On Manufactures of Wood, Leather, Paper, India 
Rubber, fyc. 

This Committee would have charge of whatever relates to 
the various kinds of wooden-ware, cabinet-work, common and 
patent leather, oil-cloths, compositions for roofing, paper and 
paper - hangings, papier - mache, japan - ware, book - binding, 



10 



and the various fabrics of India rubber, gutta-percha, whale- 
bone, ivory, straw, &c. ; having, in each case, reference to 
the implements and processes of manufacture. 

7. On Manufactures of Pottery, Glass, and Precious 
Metals. 

To this would be referred all the processes and products of 
the Ceramic Arts, including the manufacture of porcelain, 
parian, earthen and stone wares, tiles and bricks ; also what- 
ever belongs to the composition and manufacture of the vari- 
ous descriptions of Glass, clear and colored, blown and cast, 
plain, pressed, engraved and cut. The same Committee 
would have charge of the fabrics in the precious stones, and 
in gold, silver, platinum, and aluminum ; and of the methods 
and products of the arts of bronzing, silvering, and gilding, 
including the operations of electrotyping. 

8. On Chemical Products and Processes. 

The Committee in this department would give its attention 
to the entire range of chemical manufactures, including the 
production of what are technically called " chemicals ; " as 
soda- ash, sulphuric and other acids, alum, copperas, saltpetre, 
Epsom and Glauber salts, Prussian blue, quinine, &c. ; together 
with soaps, perfumery, stearine and burning fluids ; also to 
the processes and products of fermentation and distillation ; 
to the manufacture of starch, farina, cocoa, sugar, common 
salt; to that of gunpowder and other explosive mixtures; and 
to that of composts and artificial manures. 

9. On Household Economy, including Warming, Illumination, 
Water -supply, Ventilation, and the Preparation and Preserva- 
tion of Food. 

On this Committee would devolve whatever relates to the 
construction and use of furnaces, stoves, steam and water 



11 



apparatus, flues and other arrangements for the production 
and distribution of heat ; the supply of gas, or other sources 
of illumination ; the conveyance and delivery of water in 
streets and buildings ; the means of securing ventilation in 
buildings, mines, and on shipboard ; the improvements in cu- 
linary apparatus and processes ; the various inventions for the 
preservation of food; and, in a word, the mechanical and 
chemical arrangements generally, appertaining to improved 
household economy, and to the protection of the public 
health. 

10. On Engineering and Architecture. 

To this Committee would be referred all questions relating 
to the qualities and applicability of the materials used in build- 
ings or other structures ; the survey, location, and construction 
of railroads, canals, bridges, reservoirs, aqueducts, paved ave- 
nues, and tunnels ; the arrangement and decoration of open 
squares ; the planning and erection of dwelling-houses, and 
of buildings for commercial, manufacturing, and educational 
or other public purposes ; and, in a word, all the diversified 
works which come within the province of the architect and 
civil engineer ; together with the no less important subjects 
of the modelling and construction of vessels, and the science 
and art of naval architecture in general. 

11. On Commerce, Navigation, and Inland Transport. 

This Committee would devote its attention to subjects and 
questions of a directly commercial character ; taking cogni- 
zance of the staple products of different countries, their several 
varieties and adaptations, sources and commercial history ; 
noting the statistics of foreign and domestic trade, and inves- 
tigating the suggestions or the enterprises which tend to the 
enlargement of existing branches of commerce, or the creation 
of new ones. It would, moreover, give consideration to the 
various means of maritime and inland transport ; to im- 



12 



provements in the model, rig, and propelling power of ves- 
sels ; the amelioration of harbors ; the construction of docks, 
piers, and other arrangements, for the security and convenience 
of shipping ; and to the location and efficiency of railroads, 
and other channels of inland intercourse ; keeping chiefly 
in view the economical questions of trade and exchange, which 
give these works of mechanical and engineering skill their 
high commercial importance. 

12. On the Graphic and Fine Arts. 

This Committee would take charge of all matters relating 
to the arts of drawing, designing, and making patterns ; mo- 
delling, engraving, wood-cutting, printing, and photography, 
— regard being had to processes and implements, as well as 
to results ; and, as the plan and collections of the Institute 
became enlarged, giving such attention to subjects of higher 
art as might contribute to the efficient, practical instruction 
which it is the aim of the Institute to secure. 

Of the other Standing Committees previously suggested, 
the objects and duties might be briefly as follows : — 

The Committee of the Museum would be charged with 
a general supervision of the architectural arrangements, fur- 
niture, internal plans, and business concerns, of the Museum ; 
assigning to the Curators their respective spaces or compart- 
ments, and advising with these officers in all important busi- 
ness details of their several subdivisions. They should, 
moreover, have general care of all the buildings and grounds 
of the Institute, and should act in concert with the Committee 
next named in matters relating to the planning, furnishing, 
and allotment of lecture-rooms, and to the application of 
these or other parts of the building to lectures or other 
uses not designated in the regular operations of the Insti- 
tute. 



13 



The Committee of the School of Industrial Science 
should be invested with the general supervision of this de- 
partment, both in its organization and business affairs ; look- 
ing to the efficient equipment and conduct of the School of 
Design, and to the provision of courses of lectures and class- 
room teachings in the various branches of Practical Science 
and the Arts, and to the organization of chemical and other 
laboratories for instruction and practical research. 

The Committee of Publication should have the general 
direction of the printing of the Proceedings and Memoirs of 
the Institute, and of the publication of the " Journal " when 
established ; and should be empowered to advise with the 
Editor or Editors of the latter as to the selection of articles, 
and the general literary conduct of the work. 



II. MUSEUM OP INDUSTRIAL ART AND SCIENCE, 
OR CONSERVATORY OF ARTS. 

In organizing and conducting the Museum of the Institute, 
reference should be had rather to the extent of practical 
instruction to be derived from it than to the multitude of 
objects which it might embrace. Its several departments, 
therefore, should aim, in the first place, at forming a collec- 
tion of objects of prominent importance, as illustrating the 
respective Arts, however common and familiar they might 
be ; and at so arranging them as to exhibit their history as 
natural products, or devices of Art, their distinctive charac- 
ters, and the successive changes wrought upon them by the 
application of science, or mechanical skill. As specimens of 
materials, workmanship, and machinery accumulated, care 
should be taken to preserve this method of arrangement, 
wherever practicable ; and to accord a prominent place to 
what might be called the typical objects in each Department, 
however large the general mass of its collection. 



14 



Nor, in regard to any part of the Museum, should the 
great purpose of instruction be lost sight of in the multitudi- 
nous gathering of materials. A mere miscellaneous collection 
of objects, however vast, has little power to instruct, or even 
to incite to inquiry. The practical teaching and the real sug- 
gestiveness of a Museum is almost wholly dependent on the 
clear and rational arrangement of its parts, and the leading 
ideas which rule in their classification. We would therefore 
aim at having the Departments of our Museum well distin- 
guished from each other, and the objects in each placed in 
their true connections, so as to display readily their nature or 
construction, and to facilitate their comparison with others 
of the same class. 

As regards the arrangement of the Museum in Departments, 
it would be premature at present to frame any very definite 
plan. The several groups of subjects referred to in connec- 
tion with the organization of the Standing Committees of 
Arts may suffice to suggest the leading subdivisions most 
likely to be adopted, as at once simple, convenient, and con- 
ducive to practical utility. Referring to these somewhat in 
the order previously announced, it may be useful, in the pre- 
sent connection, to advert to their proposed scope and arrange- 
ment, and to note more particularly the value of the practical 
teachings which they might be expected to impart. 

Let us then consider, first, the division comprising Mineral 
Materials, with the processes and products appertaining to 
them. 

Here would be displayed a methodized series of the granites, 
sandstones, limestones, marbles, soapstones, slates and other 
rocky materials used in Architecture ; of the clays, flints, 
felspars, sands, and other ingredients used in the manufac- 
ture of the several varieties of earthenware, porcelain, and 
glass ; of the ores of iron, copper, lead, zinc, manganese, 
and other valuable metals ; and of the different descriptions 
of fossil fuel, in their several gradations, from the hardest 
anthracite to lignite, asphaltite, and peat. Along with these, 



15 



and arranged in corresponding positions, we should see speci- 
mens of the dressed and polished building materials ; samples 
of the refined and levigated clays and other materials, ready 
for the potter and glassmaker ; and specimens of the metals, 
both in their crude condition (as first obtained from the ore) 
and in the purity to which they are brought by subsequent 
operations. 

In the same department would be gathered pictures, sec- 
tions, maps, and models, — setting forth the geological and 
topographical conditions under which these different mineral 
materials are found on or beneath the earth's surface, illus- 
trating the methods by which they are mined and transported, 
and exemplifying the processes by which they are wrought 
into shape, or transformed and purified, so as to be available 
for the purposes of the Arts. 

Such a series of typical specimens, drawings, models, and 
other illustrations, while conveying valuable information in 
a connected shape even to transient observers, and greatly 
facilitating the inquiries of the systematic, general student, 
could not fail to prove a valuable help to the architect, en- 
gineer, and practical geologist, as well as to those engaged in 
iron-making and the other branches of metallurgy, and in the 
glass and ceramic manufactures. 

The Department of Organic Materials, following the 
same principle of arrangement, would exhibit, hi orderly 
connection, the various crude products as they are derived 
from their vegetable or animal sources, with the several 
stages of modification or refinement which fit them for the 
purposes of textile or other manufacture ; and, in fact, the 
iclwle history of each Leading object, from its origin to its appro- 
priation by the more advanced industrial processes. 

Thus, in the division allotted to textile fibres, we should 
have brought before us a series of specimens or drawings of 
the plants from which cotton, flax, hemp, and other vegetable 
fibres, are derived ; a suite of the fibres, in their crude and in 
their prepared condition ; magnified drawings of their form 



16 



and structure as seen under the microscope ; and an array of 
the different varieties of each as produced in this and in other 
countries. Similar suites of specimens, aided occasionally by 
drawings, would illustrate the history of wool and silk, from 
their crude state to their ultimate preparation ; and furnish 
the means of comparing the greatly diversified qualities which 
they present, as coming from different breeds and localities, 
and as suited to the several fabrics in which they are em- 
ployed. 

So, in another division of the Department, we would find 
a series of the woods employed in building, and in cabinet and 
ornamental work, or for the uses of the dyer, each in a form 
to exhibit both transverse and longitudinal sections, and in the 
smoothed or polished as well as in the rough condition ; and 
accompanied, where practicable, by a representation of the 
plant or tree from which it is derived. And so, again, the oils, 
waxes, gums, horn, whalebone, India rubber, gutta-percha, 
indigo, and madder, as well as tea, coffee, cocoa, and other 
articles of food or medicine, would be made to reveal their 
origin, and the processes by which they are prepared for 
consumption, or extracted, and made available in the Arts. 

Thus arranged in all its divisions, with a view to clear and 
substantial instruction, the Department of Organic Materials 
would claim a place among the most useful branches of the 
Museum, not only as offering valuable knowledge to the gene- 
ral inquirer, but as furnishing fruitful suggestions and power- 
ful helps to the artisan, the manufacturer, and the merchant, 
in the practical conduct of their pursuits. 

In the several Departments of the Manufacturing Arts, 
the vast variety of fabrics and products, classified according 
to their materials, textures, and ornamentation, would of 
themselves constitute an interesting subject of practical study 
and comparison. 

The productions of the loom, the lathe, the forge, the pot- 
tery, and the glass furnace, gathered from foreign countries as 
well as from the manufactories at home, would enable us 



17 



clearly to apprehend our relations to other producers, whether 
in regard to the intrinsic quality of the product, or the skill 
displayed in its form and decoration ; while, through the 
knowledge thus acquired, our artisans and manufacturers 
would be saved much unsuccessful experiment, and be guided 
to new styles of texture and ornament, and to improved and 
often new processes of production. 

Applying, as in the preceding instances, the plan of a pro- 
gressive illustration of the objects, we should have the history 
of each leading fabric set forth by a series of specimens, com- 
mencing with the material as prepared for manipulation, and 
extending through each step of its manufacture to the per- 
fected product. Thus, in the Department of Textile Manu- 
factures, a suite of such progressive and typical specimens 
would show the gradations, from the prepared fibre of cotton, 
wool, flax, or silk, through the several forms of yarn or 
thread to the more and more complex tissues into which it is 
woven or interlaced; while another series might illustrate 
the several steps of the process of dyeing, and the entire 
history of the changes by which the blank cloth is finally 
impressed with the variegated colors of the printed fabric. 

So, in the Departments of Glass, Fictile, and Metallic 
Manufactures, those of wood, leather, paper, gum elastic, 
gutta-percha, and the more strictly Chemical Arts, besides 
the extensive collection of fabrics in their various perfected 
forms, illustrating the condition of these several branches of 
Industrial Art at home and abroad, there would be presented 
a series of specimens showing the stages of the manufac- 
turing process under each general division, and marking 
the mechanical or chemical agencies employed in their ela- 
boration. 

Not less interesting and important would be the Depart- 
ments embracing the various classes of Implements and 
Machinery, — the tools of the workers in woods, metals, 
stones, and other resisting materials ; agricultural imple- 
ments ; weighing, measuring, and lifting apparatus ; musical 

3 



18 



instruments ; apparatus for philosophical experiments ; to- 
gether with specimens and models of the different kinds of 
clock and watch work, and of the endless forms of machinery 
employed in spinning, weaving, felting, sawing, planing, 
grinding, hammering, pressing, pumping, blowing, and other 
applications of mechanical energy to industrial uses. Added 
to these would be sections and other analytical representations 
of the more complex forms of machinery, to assist the gene- 
ral observer in comprehending their structure and essential 
connections, and to help the more critical student in his com- 
parisons and improvements ; while the practical interest of 
this division of the Museum would be yet further enhanced 
by the occasional exhibition of new inventions (whether of 
mechanism or of motive power), and by the display of par- 
ticular classes of machinery in actual working operation. 

Turning, lastly, to the Departments devoted to Domes- 
tic and General Architecture, Ship-Building, Inland 
Transport, and the various subjects of heating, illumina- 
tion, water-supply, and ventilation, we should find in their 
collected illustrations rich sources of general and professional 
instruction. The models and drawings of buildings of various 
kinds ; of sailing and steam vessels ; of marine engines and 
propellers ; of locomotives, cars, and other vehicles ; of rail- 
way arrangements and electric telegraphs ; and of the diver- 
sified mechanical and chemical contrivances employed in the 
supply and distribution of heat and light, water and air, — 
would be consulted with interest by the general student, at 
the same time that they offered to the architect, ship-builder, 
and engineer large opportunities for comparison, and precious 
helps and incentives to improvement. And, in the same con- 
nection, benefits of no small social importance might be anti- 
cipated from an ample illustration of the arrangements and 
inventions adapted to the economy of the household, and es- 
pecially to the promotion of cleanliness, comfort, and health, 
in the workshops and in the homes of the poor. 



19 



In carrying on the Museum, whatever plan of subdivision 
may be adopted, it will be necessary to provide for each 
Department, as it becomes organized, a Superintending Officer, 
or Curator, whose duty it shall be to take charge of its collec- 
tions ; to attend to their arrangement and preservation ; and 
to promote as much as possible the practical usefulness of his 
Department, by facilitating the inquiries of those who fre- 
quent it for instruction, as well as by laboring to enlarge its 
suites of illustrative objects. In all important changes and 
pecuniary concerns of the Department, the Curator should 
advise with the Committee of the Museum and the Com- 
mittees of Arts interested in the subject ; and they should be 
required to furnish an Annual Report of the condition and 
progress of the Department under their charge. 

As permanency of office is essential to the efficient dis- 
charge of such duties, it is desirable to make the appointment 
of the Curators renewable as long as the Institute might 
desire. As, moreover, the labors and responsibilities of a 
fully organized department might be expected to occupy 
much of the time and interest of the Superintendent, we 
would deem it indispensable to attach to the curatorship, in 
each case, a suitable stated compensation, to be determined or 
modified according to the extent and changes of the several 
divisions of which the Curators have charge. 

Such is an imperfect sketch of the Museum of Industrial 
Science and Art, which we would desire to see established as 
the central feature of our proposed Institute of Technology. 

In framing its general plan, we have not hesitated to 
embrace the largest conceptions which the comprehensive 
nature of its objects and its prospective enlargement could 
suggest. We know, that, even under the happy auspices 
which seem to be gathering around our enterprise, the early 
development of the Museum must fall very far short of the 
imposing organization which our anticipations have traced ; 
but it is the nature of such a plan to be susceptible of indefi- 



20 



nite expansion. If we cannot begin with a long list of 
Departments and their attached Committees and Curators, we 
may group our first gatherings of Industrial Science and Art 
under larger and fewer subdivisions, and open our Museum 
with a smaller official staff, sure that its augmenting treasures 
will soon claim for it an organization far ampler and more 
complete. 

Arranged and conducted according to the views which we 
have endeavored to set forth, we cannot doubt that it would 
acquire a practical value, even in its earlier stages, far beyond 
the measure of its extent, — a value as various and general as 
the interests and occupations illustrated by its collections ; and 
commanding the hearty appreciation, not only of those imme- 
diately devoted to industrial pursuits, but of our intelligent 
fellow-citizens in every walk of life. 



III. SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE AND AUT. 

In sketching thus far the plan and purposes of the proposed 
Institute of Technology, we have confined our view to the 
organization of a Society of Arts and an Industrial Museum ; 
offering, at the same time, illustrations of the practical benefits 
to be anticipated from each. But our outline is not yet 
complete : these institutions — however beneficent in their 
respective spheres, as instruments for diffusing practical 
knowledge, and affording incentives and suggestions tending 
to the improvement of the industrial arts — could, of them- 
selves, only in part fulfil the educational purposes which it 
should be the aim of the Institute to secure. 

The productive talent of the community, as measured by 
its proficiency in the practical arts, requires for its steady and 
rapid development other helps than can be offered by the 
treasures of a Museum, or the discussions and publications 
of a Society. While it would, doubtless, profit largely by 
the opportunities for instruction which collections and publica- 



21 



tions can afford, it demands yet more urgently that systematic 
training in the applied sciences, which, can alone give to the 
industrial classes a sure mastery over the materials and 
processes with which they are concerned. 

Such a training, forming what may be called the intellectual 
element of production, has, we believe, become indispensable 
to fit us for successful competition with other nations in the race 
of industrial activity, in which we are so deeply interested. 
In the communities abroad, where manufactures and the 
mechanic arts have attained the greatest proficiency, and are 
now making the most rapid advances, such an education in 
practical science is recognized as the chief instrument in their 
extension and improvement ; and the Schools of Practical 
Science, and the Polytechnic Institutes, designed to form an 
industrial class thus thoroughly trained in the principles 
of their respective arts, are highly honored, as well as 
liberally, and even munificently, endowed. 

Fortunately, in this community, the education of the public 
schools is so general, and of so high a grade, that a good 
proportion of those who are destined for industrial pursuits 
are already well prepared to profit by the teachings and 
exercises of a School of Scientific Technology. Indeed, 
considering our acknowledged superiority in this respect as 
compared with other nations generally, and having in view 
the eminently practical nature of the intellectual training 
incident to our social and political organization as a people, 
it can hardly be questioned that we are in a most favorable 
condition for attaining excellence in the pursuit of the practical 
sciences, and for reaping the highest advantages from their 
application in the wide fields of commerce, agriculture, and 
the mechanic and manufacturing arts. 

It would seem, therefore, eminently expedient, in the 
organization of the Institute, to make provision for a Depart- 
ment to be called a School of Industrial Science and Art, 
in which regular courses of instruction should be given, by 
lectures and other teachings, in the various branches of the 



22 



applied sciences and the arts ; and where persons destined 
for any of the industrial pursuits might, at small expense, 
secure such training and instruction as would enable them 
to bring to their profession the increased efficiency due to 
enlarged views and a sure knowledge of fundamental princi- 
ples, together with adequate practice in observation and 
experiment, and in the delineation of objects, processes, 
and machinery. 

Without attempting, at present, to frame a very definite 
organization for this branch of the Institute, but looking 
rather to its practical recognition, in the beginning, as an 
integral part of our plan, however imperfectly carried out, 
we would mention certain departments of instruction, which we 
think could be advantageously established, even in the com- 
mencement of our enterprise. Among these, the first would 
be a — 

School of Design. 

This Department, looking chiefly to industrial uses, would 
aim to prepare its pupils for efficient service in the ornamental 
branches of manufactures, as well as in the pursuits of the 
mechanician, architect, and engineer ; at the same time laying 
so broad a foundation of instruction, as to be a valuable help 
to general education, and to the higher culture of the Fine 
Arts. It should, therefore, be equipped with all the means 
for effective instruction, not only in geometrical, architectural, 
and free drawing, and the delineation of the apparatus and 
machinery of the arts, but in the copying and designing 
of figures and patterns for textile and other fabrics ; in the 
making of patterns and models for fictile and metallic wares ; 
in the principles regulating the arrangement and combination 
of colors, applied to these and other products ; and in the 
scientific basis and leading operations of the arts of engraving 
and photography. 

Such a practical training in the appropriate branches of 
drawing and design is of obvious necessity in the pursuits 



23 



of the engineer, architect, and machinist ; and we need 
hardly add, that, in many of the manufacturing arts, it has 
now become equally indispensable. The advance of social 
refinement is continually creating a demand for more artistic 
forms and coloring in the products of manufacturing skill, 
as well as for ever- successive novelties in their figure and 
decoration. Thus a wide field is opened for the exercise 
of taste, invention, and artistic ability, in the preparation of 
patterns for textile fabrics, for glass and pottery, and articles 
of household furniture ; and, in the competition thus arising 
for new and tasteful devices, the prosperous pursuit of these 
departments of industry is often largely dependent on the 
extent of art- culture which can be brought to bear on what 
may be termed the aesthetic branch of the manufacture. 

School of Mathematics. 

Of the more strictly scientific part of the proposed School 
of Industrial Science and Art, a Department of Elementary and 
Applied Mathematics has especial claims to our attention, as 
relating to studies of fundamental importance in nearly every 
branch of the constructive and manufacturing arts. The 
teachings of this Department, without embracing the earliest 
rudiments of mathematics, would require — for the first few 
years at least — to be adapted to a humble grade of pre- 
liminary attainment. Besides common geometry, algebra, 
trigonometry, and descriptive and analytical geometry, they 
might, perhaps, include the elements of the differential 
and integral calculus. They should, however, dwell most 
especially on the application of the several subjects ; in men- 
suration, surveying, navigation, map-making, and perspective ; 
in computing the proportions of machinery, the form and 
strength of constructions, the value of mechanical forces ; 
and in the innumerable other problems of a mathematical 
nature, which the mechanic, engineer, architect, and manu- 
facturer may be called upon to resolve. 



24 



School of Physics. 

Another leading Department in the School of Industrial 
Science would be that of General and Applied Physics, — 
embracing the principles of mechanical philosophy, as relates 
to solids, liquids, and airs ; the laws of heat, light, electricity, 
and magnetism ; and the applications of these principles and 
laws, in the machinery, instruments, and processes of the 
manufacturing and mechanic arts. Under the latter heads, it 
would be the design to teach the relative properties and 
value of the different materials used in construction, and the 
principles regulating the distribution of tension and resistance 
among them ; to illustrate the practical application of steam, 
heated air, water, the atmosphere, gravity, and other motive 
forces, together with the methods of determining their me- 
chanical efficiency ; and to explain the construction and 
working action of the various descriptions of machinery 
and engines to which these forces are applied : reference 
being made, throughout, to such of the machines, models, 
and drawings, contained in the Museum of the Institute, as 
might best answer the purposes of illustration. 

In this division, it should be the first object to impart a 
thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of the 
several branches of physics, as mathematically and experi- 
mentally demonstrated ; and then to conduct the more strictly 
practical instruction, as much as possible, under the guidance 
of these primary truths. The mathematical treatment of the 
respective topics would of necessity be limited to the simpler 
lines of investigation. Yet it cannot be doubted, that even 
this elementary training in exact methods would be of great 
practical advantage to the inquirer, not only from the secure 
grasp of principles which it would confer, but from the habit 
of close observation and reasoning which it would enable him 
to apply in the practical questions of his profession. 



25 



School of Chemistry. 

The subject of Applied Chemistry would also claim an im- 
portant place in the plan of instruction here proposed. In 
this, as in the preceding Departments of the School, the gene- 
ral doctrines and laws of chemical re-actions should be made 
to precede the study of the practical and industrial branches 
of the subject. The former might be taught by the demon- 
strations of the lecture-room : the latter could not be prose- 
cuted in a manner to be practically available without personal 
training in analysis and experiment, and would therefore de- 
mand the facilities of an ample and well-appointed Laboratory. 
This we should hope to see early connected with the School 
of Industrial Science, and so equipped with the implements of 
practical chemistry as not only to provide for the ordinary 
exercises in analysis, but for the examination of soils, ma- 
nures, and organic products, and for the illustration and study 
of the leading processes in dyeing, tanning, metallurgy, and 
the numerous other arts in which chemical re-actions are con- 
cerned. 

School or Geology. 

Lastly, to complete the circle of instruction essential to the 
plan of industrial education here contemplated, provision 
should be made for systematic teachings in Physical Geology 
and Mining, with so much of the general science as is impor- 
tant to illustrate the more practical branches of the subject. 
With the aid of maps, sections, and specimens, it would be 
the aim of this Department to teach whatever is known of the 
laws of succession of rock-formations, and of the various 
faults, flexures, and other disturbances or modifications, by 
which they are affected ; and to point out more especially the 
areolo^ical structure and mineral characteristics of each of 
the great divisions of our own and the neighboring territories, 
the position and extent of the coal-fields, the belts of iron- 
bearing and other metalliferous rocks, and the geological 

4 



26 



relations and ranges of the various granites, sandstones, 
slates, soapstones, limestones, marbles, marls, clays, and other 
mineral aggregates, which have been found available for 
building or other purposes," or which may hereafter be 
brought into profitable use. 

In this connection, the method of conducting geological 
and mineral surveys would be brought under view. The 
student would be taught whatever relates to the opening and 
extension of quarries, shafts, tunnels and drifts, and other 
details of mine-work, and to the winning, raising, and puri- 
fication of the crude product ; together with the drainage, 
ventilation, under-ground planning, and entire economy, of 
the mine : while, by the systematic study of specimens, he 
would be instructed in the characteristic appearances and pro- 
perties of the more useful building-rocks, ores, coals, and other 
mineral materials ; and would be prepared to test and esti- 
mate their value as applied to particular uses, and to make a 
proper selection, where necessary, between the similar pro- 
ducts of different quarries, deposits, or mines. 

Thus various in its practical instructions, both as regards 
principles and details, this Department of the School of Ap- 
plied Science would not only offer facilities for professional 
training to those engaging in the pursuit of practical geology 
and mining, but, by innumerable facts and suggestions, would 
render most important service in agriculture, architecture, 
engineering, and most of the industrial arts. 

Such is an imperfect sketch of the Departments of instruc- 
tion which we would consider most essential in the strictly 
educational branch of the Institute. In conducting them, it 
would be the object to provide substantial and continuous 
courses of teaching, such as, while imparting a knowledge of 
the principles, facts, and processes connected with the Arts, 
should cultivate the habits of observation and exact thought, 
which are so conducive to the progress of invention and the 
development of intelligent industry. 



27 



In some of these Departments, — as drawing, operative che- 
mistry, and mathematics, — the instructions would of necessity 
be chiefly conducted by class-studies and recitations, and labo- 
ratory exercises, requiring little or no aid from formal lectures ; 
while, in others, — such as physics, general chemistry, and 
geology, — the plan of lecture-room teaching could be advan- 
tageously and habitually employed. 

In arranging the plan and courses of instruction, provision 
would be made for the two classes of persons for whose bene- 
fit they are designed, — - those who enter the school with the 
view of a progressive systematic training in applied science, 
and who have the preliminary knowledge, as well as time, for 
a continuous prosecution of its studies ; and the far more 
numerous class, who may be expected to resort to its lecture- 
rooms for such useful knowledge of scientific principles as 
they can acquire without methodical study, and in hours not 
occupied by active labor. 

The former would of necessity be subjected to classification 
and direction in their studies, as well as examinations and 
other tests of acquirement in the progress and at the close of 
their terms. The latter, without having access to the exer- 
cises of the classroom, would be admitted to the courses of 
lectures on general and applied science, subject only to the 
conditions and restraints that are usual in public lectures gene- 
rally. To neither class would we propose to offer gratuitous 
instruction ; but we would hope, that, through the prospering 
resources of the Institute, the entire systematic training of 
the school might be placed within reach of aspiring stu- 
dents of humble means, and that the lecture-room instructions 
might be made accessible to all at only an inconsiderable ex- 
pense. 

In regard to the latter feature of the School, we may re- 
mark, that as the system of merely popular lecturing in its 
usual form would be inconsistent with the grave practical 
purposes which we have in view, it could not be recognized 
in connection with our plan. We would, however, anticipate 



28 



much valuable aid from courses of lectures on subjects not 
directly provided for in the School, but of a nature to be 
conducive to the general objects of the Institute. , Such 
would be the history of commerce, manufactures, and the 
mechanic arts ; biographies of eminent inventors, and other 
benefactors of industry ; important questions in political 
economy and trade ; the principles of architecture, painting, 
sculpture, and of fine-art criticism, and illustrations of spe- 
cial inventions and discoveries in general and industrial 
science ; and, for these additions to the educational advantages 
of the Institute, we might confidently rely on the assistance of 
the members and other friends qualified to advance its pur- 
poses in connection with industrial and general education. 

In the features of the plan here sketched, it will be appa- 
rent that the education which we seek to provide, although 
eminently practical in its aims, has no affinity with that in- 
struction in mere empirical routine which has sometimes been 
vaunted as the proper education for the industrial classes. 
We believe, on the contrary, that the most truly practical 
education, even in an industrial point of view, is one founded 
on a thorough knowledge of scientific laws and principles, and. 
which unites with habits of close observation and exact reason- 
ing a large general cultivation. We believe that the highest 
grade of scientific culture would not be too high as a prepa- 
ration for the labors of the mechanic and manufacturer ; and 
we read in the history of social progress ample proofs that 
the abstract studies and researches of the philosopher are 
often the most beneficent sources of practical discovery and 
improvement. 

But such complete and comprehensive training can, in the 
nature of things, be accessible to only comparatively few ; 
while the limited and special education which our plan pro- 
poses, would, we hope, fall within the reach of a large num- 
ber whom the scantiness of time, means, and opportunity, 
would exclude from the great seats of classical and scientific 
education in the Commonwealth. 



29 



It will thus be seen, from the peculiar character and objects 
of this Department of the Institute, that it could not interfere 
with the interests of the established schools of learning de- 
voted to general literary and scientific education. Aiming to 
supply the industrial classes with a knowledge and training 
of which they are specially in need, and which it would be 
incompatible with the purpose and organization of the univer- 
sities and colleges to attempt to provide, it would, we feel 
assured, command the good wishes and active sympathies of 
the scholars, and men of science, who dispense the high in- 
struction of these schools. Nor can we doubt that it would 
be gladly welcomed by all those who are practically occupied 
in the Arts, as a new source of success and enjoyment in 
their labors ; while, by the large-minded manufacturers, mer- 
chants, mechanics, and agriculturists, who control the mate- 
rial fortunes of the Commonwealth, it would be heartily and 
liberally recognized as a needed* and truly momentous addi- 
tion to our means of industrial as well as of educational 
prosperity. 

WILLIAM B. ROGERS, Chairman. 
Marshall P. Wilder, | Amos Bixney, 



Samuel H. Gookin, 
Alfred Ordway, 
M. D. Ross, 
Alex. H. Rice, 
E. S. Tobey, 
James M. Beebe, 
Dr. S. Cabot, Jun., 
G. W. Pratt, 



Dr. S. Kneeland, Jun., 
Charles L. Flint, 
B. S. Rotch, 
J. D. Philbrick, 
George B. Emerson, 
R. C. Waterston, 
Erastus B. Bigelow, 
Charles H. Dalton, 

Committee. 



At a meeting of gentlemen interested in the establishment of an In- 
stitute of Technology, held at the rooms of the Board of Trade, at 11, a.m., 
Oct. 5, the foregoing plan was read by Professor Rogers ; and, on vote, 
was approved, and its publication recommended. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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030 008 428 



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